Ron sashes Reserve Champion Bull of the Ekka Wyoming Fireman held by Terry Connor

With the help of Terry Connor of Timbrel Cattle-Fitting Services we were able to have our cattle on display and in the judging rings at various local shows throughout Central Queensland, as well as the Brisbane Royal Show (the Ekka).

Senior bull Wyoming Emmett and junior bulls Wyoming Francisco and Wyoming Fireman provided cattle produces with a great opportunity to see the up and coming sires of the Romagnola breed taking out Senior and Junior Champion ribbons at various different shows including Roma, Rockhampton, Finch Hatton, Mackay and Proserpine to name a few.

Wyoming Fireman, although the youngest, proved to be the favourite of the trio with most of the judges, also taking out the Grand Champion Bull at the Rockhampton Junior Beef Show and the Reserve Champion Bull at the Brisbane Royal Show.

Ron with the winning pair of carcases at Mackay Show 2011

This year at the Mackay Show we entered two pens of pasture fed heifers in the trade cattle & carcase competition.  All heifers were Romagnola/Brahman-cross, bred from our commercial Brahman cows sired by our stud Romagnola bulls.  We were delighted to win first place, taking out the MacGibbon Family Trophy in the Pen of 2 Pasture Fed Heifers Suitable for Local Trade.

The details of the winning pair of heifers were:

Following a successful year on the show rings of Central Queensland and most recently at the Brisbane Ekka with our stud cattle, we will be stepping out at the Cloncurry Expo with a top-quality line of Romagnola and Brahmagnola herd bulls.

We have had our cattle on the show circuit of Central Queensland this year with cattle-fitting operator Terry Connor, and have seen the cattle do well and gain plenty of interest.  However, what really excites me is the end product and competing in the trade cattle sections of various shows.  We have found that our Romagnola-cross cattle have been getting a lot of attention and meeting a lot of the right criteria not just in these competitions but most importantly with our local beef processor Borthwicks in Mackay.

Like many cattle producers around Queensland our family have been affected by the ever expanding mining industry, and we have seen the effects on the northern graziers when the live export cattle ban was in place.  Being a cattleman in Queensland comes with plenty of distractions and tends to consume our lives with what seems to be an endless list of problems.  For us it is certain we will lose our 12,700 hectare home and cattle property to a new coal project and I fully understand the anguish and despair that cattle people in northern Australia have in regard to live cattle export.  There may well be a resolve at the moment, but the agenda is still there from many politicians who are committed to the banning of live cattle exports within three years.

We truly believe the current Government will not do the cattlemen of Australia any favours – especially as a minority Government or with their alliance with other political parties.  As cattlemen, we are a minority group ourselves with poor industry representation and next to no lobbying ability.  The live cattle export industry certainly has been a marvellous market for many northern Australian cattlemen.  In fact, without being critical, we have seen the majority of the northern Australian cattle industry locked into one single market – the live export market.  Living in Central Queensland, as we do, the emphasis is on processed beef, which gives many more market options.  It may be great to have market diversity, but it is no good unless you have an animal which will achieve the objectives.

We have been breeders of Brahman cattle for 40 years and we are very aware of what the Brahman has done for the northern and central cattle industry.  We have to listen to what the crop or grass finishers, the feedlot operators and the meat processors are telling us.  The common theme is that they all want an animal to grade into their target markets.

As beef cattle producers, we have found that Romagnola bulls over Brahman cows have given us the greatest market diversity.  We have clients who buy Romagnola bulls to crossbreed with their live export cattle.  If the live cattle export has a hiccup, these cattlemen are in a good position to truck the cattle south where they will bring a premium over the general run of northern export cattle.

We are looking forward to bringing a number of Romagnola and Brahmagnola bulls for display and private sale to the Westpac Cloncurry Expo.  We have confidence in the Romagnola breed and feel North West Queensland has a lot to gain from crossbreeding with them.

We have finalised the Shows and Field Days we will be attending for 2011 and with the help of Terry Connor of Timbrel Fitting Services our cattle will be on display covering a large area of Queensland this year.

All cattle attending shows will be shown and displayed by Terry Connor with all cattle at field days to be displayed and attended by us (Ron & Di). 

The field days will be the best opportunity for people interested in purchasing cattle to come along and view our sale team and make either immediate purchases or arrange on-farm inspections.  We anticipate that we will have 10 to 19 bulls available for sale at each field day for interested buyers.

A list of the shows and field days are listed below and we welcome people to inspect our cattle and make further enquiries.

Shows

Alpha                         17 & 18 May

Capella                      20 & 21 May

Clermont                  24 & 25 May

Springsure                27 & 28 May

Emerald                    31 May to 1 June

Rockhampton          7, 8 & 9 June

Finch Hatton           19 June

Mackay                     21, 22 & 23 June

Proserpine               24 & 25 June

Brisbane (Ekka)      10 to 21 August

Field Days

Charter Towers        18, 19 & 20 May

Richmond                 17 & 18 June

We look forward to seeing you in 2011.

We will be taking a small select stud team to the Roma and Mitchell Shows in 2011.

The team will be exhibited by Terry Connor of Timbrel Fitting Services and will include the impressive 9 month old Wyoming Fireman by one of our most popular in-use sires Wyoming Conman out of the multi award winning dam Wyoming Amity.  Fireman’s 26 month old maternal brother Wyoming Emmett by Scottish Dritto will lead the team as the senior bull with the classy 13 month old heifer Wyoming Felicity by the renowned import sire Bulgaro flying the flag in the female section.

The stud will also exhibit an impressive Romagnola/Brahman cross steer known as “Rooster Cogburn”.  His name comes from the fictional character of the 1969 novel and film True Grit.  A remake of the film in 2010 was released when this steer first caught our eye as a potential led steer.

Roma Show – Stud cattle judging will take place at 8.00am on Friday 6 May 2011 with the led steer judging taking place at 3.00pm on the same day.

With sales of our Romagnola bulls off to a strong start following widespread rain throughout the state and country since late last year, we have again seen a strong demand for our Brahmagnola bulls.

These bulls consist of either ½ Romagnola & ½ Brahman or ¾ Romagnola & ¼ Brahman content and have been bred from our top quality red Brahman females which consist of NCC, Palmvale, Kandoona and Wandilla Brahman bloodlines.

With about 50 Brahmagnola bulls bred each year (both red and grey) they have proven to be a big winner with the Brahman breeders in the North of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Many producers are looking for that extra weight and muscle in their herd without dramatically changing the appearance of their quality line of red or grey Brahman cattle.  By using the Brahmagnola bulls in these Brahman herds, producers have found that their cattle retain their colour and dark pigmentation, while putting on that extra bit of muscle.

Both Brahmagnola and Romagnola bulls are always available for sale at the Wyoming Romagnola Stud and inspections are welcome.

The Charters Towers Field Days once again proved to be a hype of activity for our Wyoming Romagnola bulls, selling 8 bulls to repeat buyers from a total of 10 bull sales.

Robyn Muller of “Bentley Farm” Alligator Creek, south of Townsville who recently purchased bulls Wyoming Beaumont and Wyoming Chancellor at the Townsville Field Days in May this year, made the trip west to Charters Towers to purchase another 3 bulls from our stud.  Robyn has been impressed with her first two purchases and although is still several months away from having calves on the ground by these top sires, has been impressed with the perfect temperament of the two bulls as well as their big frames and muscling.

Four other purebred bulls made their new home at local properties in the Charters Towers area, with the Hollingsworth family purchasing two bulls for their operation at “Broadleigh Downs” and two bulls going to Troy Smith of “Bluff Downs”.

The final sale saw three bulls go to Rob Braes of Winton who has used Romagnola bulls over the years and was keen to retain Romagnola bloodlines within his herd.

We very much enjoy our association with the Charters Towers Field Days and greatly appreciate the hard work put into getting our bulls prepared for the event by our handler Melissa Spencer.

After another successful year in the show ring at the Brisbane Ekka claiming the Grand Champion Romagnola Bull and also taking out a 1^st and two 3^rds in two of the classes at the CQ Carcase Competition in Rockhampton the month prior, we are again looking forward to attending the Charters Towers Field Days with a display of quality Romagnola bulls available for private sale.

We have been selling our Romagnola bulls around the Charter Towers area for many years now and have found that there is a strong market for these bulls around Charters Towers and Northern Queensland with nearly 100% of our bulls going into commercial herds for crossbreeding purposes.

As always, our bulls have been selected on strict selection criteria for growth, muscling, fertility and temperament, and have all been vaccinated and semen tested ready to put straight out into the paddock to start work.

We look forward to catching up with many of our clients at the Charters Towers Field Days from 16-18 September, as well as meeting other interested cattlemen.

James Pullen & Melissa Spencer with Doctor Nelson

The Wyoming Romagnola Stud was delighted with their wins at this years Brisbane Royal Show (the Ekka) taking out the top award of Grand Champion Romagnola Bull with Wyoming Doctor Nelson.  Doctor Nelson’s dam, Wyoming Tessa was also a grand champion of the Ekka some 8 years earlier winning the top female award at the studs first ever outing at the Ekka. 

Other awards won by the stud at this years Ekka included Reserve Senior Champion Bull with Wyoming Dario, Reserve Senior Champion Female with Wyoming Christine and Junior Champion Bull, Wyoming Emmett.

Ron receiving one of our awards on the night

In July 2010, we entered cattle in the CQ Carcase Competition.  This competition was established in 2008 primarily due to the fact that the commercial section of the Rockhampton Show folded due to lack of support from certain local sectors.  Some producers wishing to keep this popular competition running got together and formed a committee to have a new carcase competition established.  Sponsors were keen to be part of this new competition and Teys Brothers came on board which allowed the cattle to be processed at Lakes Creek Meat Works.

The competition proudly supports the local community with the main beneficiaries being P. and C. Associations of four small country schools and the committees of two small country shows in the outlying area. We decided to take part in the competition this year after hearing about it and entered steers in two classes:

Class 5: Single Pen, Up to 4-Tooth Grainfed Steer (300 – 420kg Carcase Weight); and

Class 6: Pen of 3, Up to 4-Tooth Grainfed Steers (320 – 420kg Carcase Weight).

With only 8 head, we were placed 3^rd in Class 5 and 1^st and 3^rd in Class 6, with all steers being Romagnola/Brahman cross.  A real boost to the evening was the announcement that one of our steers in Class 6 had the largest eye muscle of all the cattle in the competition at 117sq. cm.  Although not on the prize list, was definitely worth a mention!